A Hot Transportation App That Could Save You From a DUI Comes to Town

At closing time, you find out who your real (sober) friends are. Of course, you could always use an app we've told you about before: Be My Designated Driver, or BeMyDD.

The service will send a designated driver to your drunken location to take you and your car home starting at $25 plus mileage fees.

Besides getting home safe, without harming others (and without getting a $16,000 DUI), there's another reason to use BeMyDD tonight: The company just announced that it has moved to the Los Angeles area.

The app firm, which says it's the "nation’s largest designated driver service," moved to Beverly Hills from the self-proclaimed "Rock 'n' roll capital of the world" (yeah, right—the Rainbow Bar & Grill alone has more hair than Cleveland, home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame).

Welcome to the high end of Silicon Beach.

Related Stories

As part of its big move, BeMyDD is expanding its business to include "personal driver services for medical appointments; pick-up and drop-off for airport, elderly care and car repair transportation; event and shopping excursions; executive transportation and family carpools," it said in a statement.

Those services are launching in L.A. and Orange counties: BeMyDD is offering a $49, four-hour driver deal for locals to help launch the expanded offerings. When the driver arrives, you can even call him James. Or not.

We asked the company, why L.A? This city is the best and all, but it's, well, very expensive to live here. Executive vice president Michael Donner answered:

We have been operating in Los Angeles with great success over the last 3-plus years, and with our rapidly growing client base throughout Southern California it just made perfect sense. With so many options for restaurants, nightlife and entertainment, our clients can enjoy a night on the town and leave the driving and worry free parking to us. We also just expanded services for airport and medical transportation in L.A., and we are ready with more local drivers to take on this increased demand.

As Uber and other ride-share services face questions about the backgrounds of their drivers, BeMyDD today also sought to reassure customers about its own hires. The company said it uses "experienced chauffeurs" that "operate the customer’s own vehicle."

It continued:

The average age of a BeMyDD driver is 51, and the company requires every driver to have at least 10 years of professional driving experience, complete an in-person interview and undergo very comprehensive background checks. Many drivers hold a commercial driver’s license (CDL).

L.A. Weekly staff writer Dennis Romero has worked on staff at several magazines and newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian, and, as a young stringer, the New York Times.